1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to outboard electric fishing motors for boats and means for mounting and supporting same.
2. The Prior Art
Bass fishing boats now employed throughout the country have stern-mounted outboard gasoline engines for powering the boat relatively quickly from a dock to and among fishing areas and a quiet electric trolling motor, generally mounted on a flat-decked bow of the boat, for low-speed fishing operations. It is desirable to be able quickly to move the trolling motor from a submerged operating position to a retracted storage position and back again with minimum handling. For such purposes a variety of foldable mounting arrangements have been in common use at least since the early 1960's.
James Dale is believed to have used a bracket device around Shreveport, Louisiana, in the early 1960's, having a base plate with center and side arms pivotally mounted therefrom and connecting to a hinge or swivel bracket holding a shaft of the trolling motor in a vertical operating position and in a generally horizontal retracted storage position. In the Dale device, a forward, outboard pivot axis on the base plate connecting to the center arm is at a higher elevation than a rearward, inboard pivot axis of the side arms. By this configuration, the submersible propulsion motor is brought into resting contact on a resilient mounting pad in the storage position. In other mounting bracket devices, the pivot axes on the base plate may be at the same height, or the inboard axis may be higher than the outboard axis.
In the Dale and similar devices, differences in dimensions among the pivot axes from part to part, as well as aging of the parts and other factors can prevent satisfactory preloading of the motor housing onto the resilient pad, allowing the motor to bounce thereon under shock loads imposed during trailering on the highways and during high-speed water operation. No method or apparatus has heretofore been known to secure the motor in a locked position without use of auxilliary straps or stays.